When done, they'll be added to a growing collection of cranes made at the Ridgefield Library. By week's end, the cranes will be flying in a looping stream of birds at the Cyrenius H. Booth Library in Newtown.

The work is a gesture of solidarity and healing from one library to another, after the tragic shooting of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14.

"We think it's lovely,'' Colleen Broderick said of the work.

Nor was all the origami being done at the library. Ravi Sankar stopped by with his 23-year-old daughter Shrutika to gather up some paper squares and instructions.

"We can make them on New Year's Day,'' Sankar said.

In Japan, cranes are symbols of good luck, happiness and longevity. In Japanese legend, if you make 1,000 paper cranes, a crane will grant you a wish. In weddings, young couples get 1,000 cranes to grant them 1,000 years of prosperity.

But after World War II, making 1,000 cranes became a symbol for something larger -- a hope for world peace and healing.

That stems from the work of Sadako Sasaki, a 12-year-old girl dying of leukemia after being exposed to radiation when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Sadako was determined to fold 1,000 cranes. She died when she'd reached 644 birds. Her classmates finished her work, and there is now a statue of her at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, along with strings of paper cranes.

Nolan said local parents asked to make cranes to give to Newtown.

"We were happy to be the place that could help them,'' Nolan said.

If all goes as intended, the Newtown library will get the 1,000-strong flock this week.